The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) keeps the world's largest database of variable star brightness measurements, used by professional and amateur astronomers alike. If your Seestar caught a variable star, you can add your measurements to it under your own name.
This guide covers what you need, what is in the report I prepare for you, and how to upload it. To see what your telescope caught, look it up on Variable stars in Seestar Collective images.
Sign up at aavso.org. New observers start at the AAVSO's new observers page.
Every observation in the AAVSO database carries one observer code. It is free: once you have an account, request one as described on the AAVSO's observer code page.
Look up your telescope on the light curve page, copy the request it gives you, and send it to me as a Discord direct message or by email. Before releasing anything, I check that the account it comes from matches the telescope, so only the person who took the images gets the reports. Include your observer code and I'll put it in the files.
Each report comes with its light curve. If the points scatter much more than the error bars, or the comparison star wanders as much as the variable, leave that one out. Fewer good measurements help more than many noisy ones.
Sign in to the AAVSO and open WebObs photometry submission, then upload the report file. WebObs plots your points against the existing data before you confirm. A point marked "outside of expected range" is a warning, not a refusal: check it, then decide.
One plain-text file per star, in the AAVSO Extended File Format.
| Field | What's in it |
|---|---|
#OBSCODE | Your observer code (send it with your request, or type it in yourself) |
FILT | TG: the green pixels of a color camera, measured against V-band comparison stars. This is how the AAVSO asks for one-shot color data. |
| Points | 5-minute averages of at least 3 images each, not every single image |
DATE | Julian Date (UTC) of each average; the barycentric time (BJD_TDB) is in each row's notes |
| Comparison stars | An ensemble of steady Gaia DR3 stars on the same images (CNAME ENSEMBLE, CHART Gaia DR3), listed in a file beside the report, plus one check star (KNAME, KMAG) |
TRANS | NO: the magnitudes are not transformed to the standard system |
#OBSTYPE | CCD (the AAVSO's format page asks CMOS cameras to report as CCD) |
| Credit | The notes say the images are yours and were measured by SkyCruncher for the Seestar Collective |
For an eclipsing binary, the light curve you submit is what matters most: it is how a time of minimum is checked. The AAVSO's eclipsing binary section collects times of minimum, and VarAstro's O-C gateway asks Seestar users to join its eclipse-timing project. If your report includes a time of minimum, I note it with its uncertainty.
What I won't send. Sessions shot through the Seestar's LP (light pollution, dual-band) filter: that filter has no AAVSO band, so those measurements should not be submitted. And stars marked "read with care" on the light curve page (a close neighbor, or a brightness that depends on the aperture size) get a closer look from me before release.
Message me on Discord or email hello@skycruncher.io
Send me a Discord direct message or an email. The AAVSO's own guides for color cameras are in its observer resources.